Week 4-Petrelli's Film Review: Garden State

Garden State (2004) 

 Starring: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm, Peter Sarsgaard.

Director: Zach Braff.

Running time: 102 Minutes.

Genre: Comedy, Drama. Romance

 Life is not simple, family relationships, job, and lover, friends, sometime it is getting worse and out of control. But sometimes, one small mistake will change your life.

 Andrew Largeman, played by Zach Braff who is also the director of this film, He doesn’t like to talk to people at the beginning of the movie. He was return from LA where he is a part-time waiter. The reason why he came back was his mother’s accidently death. It is the first time in 9 years Andrew back to town. During the funeral, he meets his old friends. It is a small town, and everyone seems had a dream, that is become rich. Then, Andrew meets the girl Sam in the hospital, he started to change. The relationship with his father, I think they both had the same felling which is regret of his mother’s death. Because it was one small mistake

 The sound track of this movie has a significant effect in each of the scene in this movie. At the end of this movie, the song Let Go was really touched. It created an emotional atmosphere which represented the meaning of love between Andrew and Sam.

 About the camera angel, there are lots of close up shot. The audience can actually see the face of each character and really into it. When you focus on the camera angel, the camera took a close shot, the character always on the left or right of the screen, not at the middle of the screen. It remains me to think about the movie 2046. By using this skill, the audience will more focus on the characters instead of the empty place.

 The colour and lighting was really catchy but dark. Back to the scene which Andrew and Sam went to this warming swimming pool with his friend. The lighting was brilliant. It created a sense of fancy atmosphere. You can feel the love from the setting and the colour as well. The best scene to demonstrate this meaning will be the one when they seating in the bathtub.

 The camera movement always followed the bike from the shot which is really close to the long shot.  It used the movement which from the down to the top. The scene will be the last part of the film when the want to this valley and try to find the significant card. It is the way that the director wants to tell the audience how deep the valley is.

 Time to leave, every story has an end. For this, it seems to be sadness, but not really. After he got on the plan, he starts to think. It is the love inside of his heart.  Like what Andrew said when they both seating in the bathtub and Sam asked how do you feel now. Andrew said safe, like a home.